Sunday, August 15, 2010 4:49:43 PM
To address some comments:
People have been building in areas prone to flooding for at least all of recorded history, probably before then too. It's extremely fertile farming land, so settlements tend to start there. Ancient Egypt, for example, was able to supply most of the staple food for most of the Roman empire from lands which flooded at least a couple of times every year.
For a modern example, how about London? It`s built on a swamp that`s part of the flood plain for a river that that routinely caused massive flooding. It`s much bigger now, but that`s where the older parts of London are. Flooding was a huge problem before modern technology and is still a threat now despite the hundreds of flood defences. Should we try to move London?